REVIEW 5 PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS
Purpose: To prepare for Part II of the Workbook. To give more time and effort to practicing, that you may pick up your pace on the journey to God. To recognize the truth in the central idea (“God is but love, and therefore so am I”). Make this review a gift to Jesus and a time in which you share with him a new yet ancient experience.
The prayer: Use the prayer in paragraphs 2 and 3 to dedicate the review to God. It asks God to lead your practicing and to call you back to it when your practice lags, so that you can make quicker progress on the road to Him.
The central thought: The review really revolves around this idea (“God is but love, and therefore so am I”). The purpose of the review is to bring us to a place where we truly understand and experience the truth of the idea. And the purpose of the ideas being reviewed is to support the central idea, draw out different aspects of it, and make it “more meaningful, more personal and true” (W-Re.5.In.4:2). Therefore, have this idea pervade every day of this ten-day review. Start and end the day with it, start and end each practice period with it, and surround every repetition of the review ideas with it.
Morning/evening quiet time: At least five minutes; ideally, thirty or more.
Spend a moment repeating the central thought (“God is but love, and therefore so am I”) and the two review ideas. Surround each review idea with the central idea. Use the review ideas to illumine some aspect of the central thought and make it more meaningful to you.
Then enter what I call “open mind meditation.” Hold your mind still and quiet, empty of all words. Words are like signposts—they point to meaning, but now you are seeking the direct experience of meaning, and for this, words only get in the way. In this verbal void, simply wait in “silent expectancy” (W-94.4:1) for the experience of what the words speak of, the experience of your true Self. Your whole focus is on waiting “in still anticipation” (W-157.4:3). Your mind is at rest, yet also poised. Your whole awareness is waiting for the dawn of realization to spread over it. Hold this focus wordlessly. However, when your mind wanders, which will happen regularly, repeat the central thought to remind you of what you are waiting for—the realization of your true Self—and then return to your wordless waiting.
Close by repeating the central thought once again.
Hourly remembrance: One or two minutes as the hour strikes (reduce if circumstances do not permit).
Suggestion: Repeat the two review thoughts, surrounding each one with the central thought. Then thank God for his gifts in the previous hour and ask His guidance for the coming hour. Close with the central thought.